2 Ballot Issues Raise Question: Is Smoking Becoming Taboo?

By DAVID S. WILSON, Special to the New York Times

Published: October 25, 1988

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24—
Two anti-smoking measures on the ballot in California and Oregon have provoked a furious counterattack that reflects the tobacco industry's deepening concern about spreading anti-tobacco sentiment.

Opponents are spending $12 million on advertising campaigns against the measures, which will be on the ballot Nov. 8. The stakes are so high, both sides agree, because success could be expected to spawn similiar proposals elsewhere and send a strong signal that smoking is becoming officially taboo.

''These are cutting-edge states,'' said Jeff Raimundo, a public relations executive who is leading the $10 million tobacco industry's campaign against California's Proposition 99, which would raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 10 cents to 35 cents. Opponents Predict Sales Drop

Spokesmen for the tobacco industry said the 25-cent increase was the biggest cigarette tax increase ever proposed, and predicted that if successful, it would cut cigarette sales by 13 percent in a state that has more smokers than any other.

The battle has grown fierce, with television commercials produced by Roger Ailes, Vice President Bush's advertising specialist, suggesting that higher cigarette taxes would increase tobacco smuggling by gangs - a sore subject in a state where citizens have recently been caught in the crossfire of warring urban gangs.

Supporters of the tax increase, many of whom have ties to health groups, have denounced the commercials as deceptive, and a number of television and radio stations have broadcast them with disclaimers or have refused to run them at all.

In Oregon, a ballot initiative known as Measure 6 would ban smoking in all indoor public places except bars, tobacco shops and some hotel rooms. Health officials say the proposal would be the most restrictive anti-smoking measure approved by any state.

Walker Merryman, vice president of the Tobacco Institute, a trade association for cigarette manufacturers, calls the measure ''too Orwellian to contemplate, they've gone way too far.'' Seen as Protecting Nonsmokers

Supporters of the Oregon measure say the state's precedent-setting 1983 policy of requiring designated smoking areas in workplaces has failed to protect nonsmokers. They say that forcing tobacco users to obstain or go outdoors to smoke will reduce tensions between smokers and nonsmokers.

In both states, polls show that the tobacco industry has succeeded in reducing support for the measures by heavily outspending backers on advertising campaigns that have become as much of an issue as the measures themselves.

Both sides in the Proposition 99 debate credit the commercials against the proposal with trimming support from 72 percent to 58 percent of those polled by the Field Institute, an independent polling firm.

And in Oregon, Mark W. Nelson, director of the campaign against the measure, said his organization's polls have shown support for Measure 6 dropping from 65 percent to 53 percent of those polled since June. Supporters of the measure question the size of the reported drop, but not its direction. A Controversial Commercial

Attention has centered on a dramatic television commercial being shown in California in which a man identifying himself as an undercover police officer says raising cigarette taxes ''will create major crime'' by increasing tobacco smuggling by gangs.

The spot suggests a van load of smuggled cigarette cartons could net gang members over $13,000 in profits. ''That money could buy 32 pounds of marijuana, enough crack for 1,280 kids, or 185 handguns,'' says the spokesman, who Mr. Raimundo said is a Los Angeles police desk sergeant who sometimes participates in stakeouts.

John Van de Kamp, the State Attorney General, quickly branded the commercials ''a scare tactic of the worst and baldest kind.'' He said that agents of the State Board of Equalization, not police, deal with tax evaders and that authorities from other high-tax states indicate no serious trouble with cigarette smuggling.

The California State Sheriff's Association and the Sacramento Police Officers Association retracted their original opposition to Proposition 99, calling the commercials inaccurate and unfair. Refusing to Run the Spots

Two television stations, KGO in San Francisco and KABC in Los Angeles, refused to run the spots. ''It's not a fact that crime will definitely go up with Proposition 99 and that was no undercover cop in the ad. We didn't feel it was truthful,'' said Bruce L. Roberts, an advertising account executive with KABC.

Even some opponents of Proposition 99 are distancing themselves from the tobacco industry's efforts. ''That campaign is run separately from us,'' said Fred C. Main, general counsel of the California Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the measure on the grounds that budgeting and taxing should be done only by the State Legislature.

The Coalition for a Healthy California has raised $1.1 million to promote Proposition 99. One of its two television commercials features a smoker who died of smoking-related illnesses shortly after filming the spot.

The measure has received heavy support from the medical community in California. Of the proposed tax receipts, 35 percent would go to hospitals and 10 percent to doctors for their treatment of uninsured patients.

Twenty percent of the Proposition 99 tax money would go to educating young people about the dangers of smoking and substance abuse. The American Lung Associate estimates that 90 percent of smokers start using tobacco while in their teens. Health agencies also say that the tobacco industry needs to recruit 5,000 new smokers a day to replace those who die or quit smoking.

Research into tobacco-related illnesses would take 5 percent of the Proposition 99 receipts, the same amount dedicated to state and local parks. A reserve of 25 percent of the money would be distributed among the programs by the Legislature. Different Campaign in Oregon

The campaign in Oregon has been far less inflammatory, featuring commercials showing a statue of Justice holding a scale balanced by signs saying ''No Smoking'' and ''Smoking Allowed.'' An announcer talks about the advantages of the existing system of designated smoking areas and says the delicate balance between interests will be destroyed by Measure 6. Then, a large weight crashes down on the ''No Smoking'' end of the scale, breaking off the arm of Justice.

''We've been very careful not to overdramatize the issue, which is not about the tobacco industry but about the effectiveness of our present system,'' Mr. Nelson said.

Anti-smoking forces have been encouraged by Canada's ban on all tobacco advertising and its requirement that all federally regulated workplaces have designated smoking rooms. The measures take effect Jan. 1.

Mark Pertschuk, president of Americans for Non-Smoker's Rights, said anti-smoking forces plan to push next year for an increase of up to 50 cents in the Federal tax on cigarettes and for a ban on all tobacco advertising.

Representative Mike Synar, Democrat of Oklahoma has twice unsuccessfully pushed for such an advertising ban. Along with Representatives Michael A. Andrews of Texas and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, both Democrats, Mr. Synar is planning a Jan. 27-28 conference in Houston to determine a coordinated legislative strategy for fighting tobacco use.